SSRT Bribery in USFK
Police have arrested the owner of a company who bribed his way to winning the exclusive telecom contract for U.S. bases in Korea. Their investigation was prompted by frequent complaints that the Internet breaks down at the bases. The reason was simple: the suspect was a cell phone lender with only 16 staffers and without any experience in the field, and he won the US$206 million exclusive contract in November 2001 by bribing to Korean-American U.S. officers.
The company, SSRT, beat service giants like the nation¿s largest broadband carrier KT as well as Hanarotelecom, Thrunet and SK Telink in an open competition to provide the Internet service for 10 years. It provides services at 13 U.S bases nationwide, including the Yongsan, Osan and Pyeongtaek bases.
The internet issues on USFK facilities has been an on going issue for sometime with no resolution. That is why I don’t find this level of corruption really surprising:
But the hasty business scheme was doomed to failure. The U.S. Forces Korea¿s board was inundated with thousands of complaints about the poor Internet service. Servicemen complained that their computer went down whenever they went online, that Internet calls to their family were cut off, and that they were charged for long-distance phone calls although they made only local calls.
When USFK authorities launched an investigation to compare the quality of the service with KT in May 2003, Jeong was introduced to the U.S. officer in charge of the inspection through the colonel. Jeong promised the inspector $65,000, enough to buy a BMW. On 17 occasions between September 2003 and July 2005, Jeong treated the inspector and gave him a total of $68,000. On Monday, Gyeonggi police arrested Jeong on charges of violating international trade laws. USFK authorities plan to dispatch investigators to Okinawa, Japan, and Georgia State, the U.S. where the two bribed Korean-American officers currently live, for additional investigations.
These two officers need to be prosecuted to the maximum of the law. This case should sound familiar to those who have been following USFK issues for a while because this is not the first time high level corruption has occurred in USFK. This internet corruption was small change compared to the Colonel Moran case of 2002:
A federal grand jury in Southern California today indicted a United States Army colonel based in South Korea on charges of orchestrating a scheme in which he solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for influencing the award of millions of dollars in contracts to two Korean businesses.
The 11-count indictment charges Col. Richard James Moran, who was commander of the United States Army Contracting Command Korea (USA-CCK), a position in which he oversaw an agency that annually approved more than $300 million worth of contracts. The federal grand jury in Santa Ana alleged that Moran influenced the award of four contracts in exchange for bribes that were paid primarily with $100 bills.
More than $700,000 in cash was discovered when investigators with the Army Criminal Investigation Command executed a search warrant at Moran¿s residence on the Yongsan Army Base on January 16, 2002. More than $400,000, which was in $100 bills, was found in Moran¿s bed.
Considering the timing of this high level corruption it makes me wonder if Colonel Moran coordinated his efforts with the current Colonel in hot water, which is just now coming to light. Hopefully the Army CID agents dig deep into all the contracts handed out during this time by USFK officials. I wouldn’t be surprised if more shady dealings are still to be discovered.
The bottom line with this corruption is that the soldiers are the ones who ultimately are getting screwed, that is why USFK needs to uncover and prosecute all corruption in Korea.
